WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 677: Episode 21: Kim Dokja (13)

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* * *

Two men stood in a darkness filled with pitch-black emptiness. The corpses of horribly severed tentacles floated around them.

They had all been Outer Gods drifting above the Void Curtain.

Yu Junghyeok wiped the pitch-black blood from the Black Heaven Demon Blade and spoke.

"One got away."

There was an oddly dissatisfied note of reproach in his voice.

The man standing opposite him frowned.

"You're the one who let it get away."

The man draped in a ragged hide reined in the sword intent pouring from his entire body and looked down at the Void Curtain.

The one that had just escaped was now below that curtain.

"Even my thrust would have trouble piercing that."

The Void Curtain.

A net of Star Stream Plausibility created to protect Scenario regions from Outer Gods.

Only divine beings that paid sufficient Plausibility to lower their Status could descend beneath it.

Looking down at the curtain, the man curled his lips slightly.

"If I truly wanted to destroy it, I could."

"Then the hounds hunting you will appear."

"You think I'd be afraid of hounds?"

Junghyeok didn't answer.

The man before him had every right to say that.

There were likely fewer than ten beings in the entire universe capable of facing his thrust.

"By the way, did you bring me here just to deal with creatures like these?"

"There are stronger divine beings. You underestimate the Star Stream too much."

"You said there was a place to destroy, so I came along expecting something. If this keeps up, I'll leave first."

After muttering that, the man closed his eyes with one arm beneath his head, as if he couldn't be bothered.

Junghyeok watched him for a moment before noticing faint sparks gathering around them.

Tsstsst.

The influence of Plausibility weakened beyond the Void Curtain.

Even so, the signs of a Plausibility Backlash meant the Star Stream considered them a tremendous threat.

‘It'll be difficult to descend upon this worldline for a while.’

Junghyeok glared at the Void Curtain.

He couldn't see clearly beyond the opaque curtain, but two people he knew were surely beneath it.

The sound of another Outer God approaching came from afar.

Junghyeok gripped the hilt of the Black Heaven Demon Blade again and quietly muttered words meant for no one in particular.

"Don't die."

* * *

I didn't know about other writers, but there was one thing I considered before writing a story.

Was this an event that could be resolved, or an impossible event?

Most writers created events that could somehow be resolved. Otherwise, it became difficult to serialize a story for long.

Still, every writer eventually faced a moment when they had to challenge an "impossible event."

【O O O O O O O】

This was that moment for me.

An opponent that made my knees tremble just from watching it from afar.

There was no way I could face a monster like that while in my right mind.

"You can do it. The protagonist grows by fighting things like that."

I nodded.

Han Suyeong had probably faced countless Outer Gods already. So something like that...

"I should tell you now, I can't be the protagonist."

Suyeong's Incarnation body was certainly a mess. Even at a glance, I could see that the bones throughout her body had been intricately twisted or broken.

"Instead, I'll lend you my fables. Go fight, protagonist."

I stared at her in disbelief.

The Outer God descending from the sky was a high-grade individual I had never encountered before.

She wanted me to fight that thing alone?

"You can do it."

[The fable Predictive Plagiarism has settled within your Incarnation body.]

The next moment, countless Yi Hakhyeons began talking in my head.

「If an Outer God descended beneath the curtain, it must've sacrificed that much of its Status.」

「It might not be the main body. It could be a split body.」

「It'll be the strongest enemy we've faced so far, but it isn't beyond our ability to fight.」

Suyeong's fable flowing through my body gave me strength.

Come to think of it, I'd forgotten. Outer Gods were strong, but Suyeong was strong, too.

Besides, in a place like the outskirts of a Scenario, her original fable would exert power beyond Plausibility.

Rumble.

I gripped Thought as if testing the fables filling my entire body.

‘Thought.’

At my command, Thought changed shape.

[Blade of Faith has activated!]

A white-blue blade sprang forth.

I swung my sword at the Founder of the Absolute Throne, who had come within arm's reach.

It was a strike dozens of times faster and more precise than usual. It felt as though a Swordmaster had possessed me.

Perhaps that was why.

Skkrrch.

It was shallow. Shallow, but I distinctly felt the tip of my blade cut into something.

【O O O O O】

The creature let out a furious cry. It felt like my ears would go deaf and I would vomit. Every hair on my body stood on end, and the chills down my spine wouldn't stop.

The reason was clear.

「A king's fable.」

The fable of a king, which subdued all living things, billowed from the creature's entire body.

My legs shook. An urge to drop to my knees seized my mind.

This was the Founder of the Absolute Throne's presence.

Yet I endured. I could endure.

I didn't know why.

It might've been because of Han Suyeong's fable. It might've been because the creature had weakened considerably after crossing the curtain, or because I'd already hunted an Outer God once.

Either way, one thing was certain. I had to make this situation "resolvable."

【How da re】

When I refused to fall to my knees, a radiant blade appeared in the Founder's hand. It was a constellation artifact in the form of a greatsword, dangerous at a glance.

"Watch out! It's Excalibur!"

Along with Suyeong's warning, a terrifying storm of fables swept toward me.

Ooooooooh.

The souls that had died beneath that sword screamed horribly. Under normal circumstances, I would've become one of them.

But I was different now.

[The fable Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint continues its story.]

The story we'd written was protecting us.

「"Kim Dokja! Dodge!"」

I could see it.

The path of an attack I normally wouldn't have been able to see.

Skkrrch!

I barely dodged the storm of fables, then gripped my sword and slashed sideways.

"Keep going! Don't give it time to rest!"

Sparks flew from the creature's shin as it let out a shriek. It was working.

"It's an Outer God, but its attribute is undead! Change Blade of Faith to the Divinity attribute!"

I did as she said without hesitation.

Mana changed to the Divinity attribute and mixed with the white-blue Mana, stirring up a blast of sword wind. For the first time, the lofty Outer God took a step back.

I could fight it.

Mana rampaged through my body as if it would explode, and my muscles screamed madly. My bones throbbed from the recoil.

[Your Incarnation body is in a critical condition!]

I fought while swallowing elixirs from my pocket by the handful to delay my internal injuries.

Every time our blades collided, my hands split open and bled. Each time a wound appeared on its body, a long gash appeared on mine as well.

That was the price of facing an Outer God in only the fourth Scenario.

Still, I didn't think it was impossible to win.

【O O O O O】

New joints rose from the enraged Founder's waist, becoming two arms. Each arm held a sword radiating sinister energy.

Suyeong shouted, "Arondight and Galatine! You know what they are, right?"

I knew. Arondight in particular was a famous sword that had appeared even in Junghyeok's 1,863rd round. They were all constellation artifacts connected to King Arthur's fable.

"Don't be scared. Keep fighting! Looking at their performance, they could be replicas!"

The adrenaline flooding through me made me forget the pain, and Suyeong's [Predictive Plagiarism] predicted the creature's attacks.

I deflected Arondight's strike and cut off its left arm. Then I knocked away Galatine as it flew toward my waist before aiming for its shin again.

Was it because of Suyeong's fable? Everything came so naturally.

The furious creature began explosively pouring out condensed fables.

Semicircular sword aura covered every direction.

I drew Suyeong's fable to its limit and exploded it from the tip of my blade.

[The fable Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint has increased the story's volume.]

I cut down the creature's endlessly growing arms again and again.

【O O O O O?】

That powerful Outer God was flustered. Whenever my sword cut through the air, Suyeong's fables ran wild in my head.

[The fable Predictive Plagiarism has increased the story's speed.]

A remarkably resilient and dynamic fable. It was hard to believe a single person had built up such a story alone.

I felt like a god.

The view seen by someone who had completed a story lay before me.

A net of every story, so hopeless it couldn't be described, so meaningless it felt empty, so dizzying it made me want to vomit.

Every sentence that made up the world was caught in the path of my sword. Once, twice. Each time that path bent, the world's future was decided.

I wanted to see what came next.

What waited at the end of this path.

What I would face in the Final Chapter of this story.

「I liked stories.」

Drunk on fables, I swung my sword again and again.

「I came all this way simply because I liked stories.」

Was that my sentence, or Suyeong's?

It didn't matter anymore. Even if I'd only copied down her story, that was fine.

If she helped this worldline.

If we could fight together even now, perhaps we could put this horribly broken world back where it belonged.

Perhaps we could reach this world's complete ending.

The moment I thought that.

Tsstsst.

Feeling my strength rapidly drain away, I quickly retreated from the creature.

My stomach suddenly turned, and I dry-heaved.

Blaaagh.

As if vomiting up everything I'd eaten, I vomited fables. Something inside me was rejecting Suyeong's fable.

As if that story wasn't mine.

「Was there never a time when you felt happy receiving the affection Kim Dokja should have received?」

Along with the dizziness, pitch-black darkness poured endlessly from my mouth.

「"What are you talking about? You're Kim Dokja, too."

Didn't those words make you feel relieved, even for a moment?」

I shook my head, trying to cast the memories away.

「Like someone intercepting and reading a misaddressed letter, didn't you enjoy so much simply because you had the same name as him?」

Somewhere, I heard the sound of a wall shaking.

「Didn't you flee in fear because you didn't want to share all of it with the real Kim Dokja?」

I clutched my head and shook it.

Someone was speaking.

You don't need to force yourself to fight.

You don't need to face it.

It's been hard for you all this time.

Just receive warm comfort.

Live again in a new world, under another name.

"Hey! Get a hold of yourself!"

Excalibur's strike flew toward me.

I couldn't dodge it. There was nowhere to run.

Here, I...

Someone shoved me hard, and I rolled across the ground. A deafening roar erupted before me.

A powerful storm of fables swept in.

The Founder was flung far away with the backlash.

When I lifted my head, gasping for breath, Suyeong stood in front of me.

「That was the price she paid to change this world.」

When had the number of Fable Fragments drifting around us begun to decrease?

[The fable Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint hesitates in its story.]

A large hole had opened in Suyeong's chest.

White-burning sentences flowed from that hole as ash.

"Suyeong!"

Suyeong wiped the blood from her mouth and looked at me.

"I'm fine."

She smiled while clutching her left chest, blood pouring from her ears.

"In the Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint I wrote, companions don't die that easily."

My entire body trembled.

[The fable Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint has temporarily paused its story.]

The resolve with which I'd boldly declared I would write my story vanished somewhere, and terrible fear seized my mind.

"I..."

I didn't want to be left alone again.

Suyeong coughed over and over before collapsing forward.

I quickly caught her, and she looked up at me.

"Since you're a writer too, you know. Telling the story you want to tell isn't always a happy thing."

The blood drained from her face. I caught the pouring blood with my hands and desperately tried to stop the bleeding.

Suyeong was looking up at the sky.

I needed to find an elixir. A Lesser Restoration Pill, a Demonic Person Pill, anything.

「At that moment, Suyeong let go of a long obsession.」

I blankly looked down at the sentences flowing from her.

The wound wasn't a simple external injury.

「The final sentence she would write was a sentence she had never written before.」

Her root fable had been damaged.

"Wait, just wait!"

I shouted as if denying that fact.

"This is Avatar, right? Right?"

Of all people, Han Suyeong couldn't die like this.

She was the cleverest character in Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.

Wasn't she the writer who found a way through any adversity?

Yet Suyeong seemed unable to hear my voice and only looked up at the pitch-black sky.

As if something she'd been looking for was there.

I followed her gaze and raised my head. Someone was still fighting beyond the Void Curtain.

The trails of falling meteors, and the screaming Outer Gods.

Only then did questions come to me.

How had Junghyeok arrived beyond that curtain at such a timely moment?

Where had the Plausibility to summon him come from?

Tsstsst.

The backlash flowing through Suyeong's body was destroying her. Suyeong was disappearing. Her legs and torso were crumbling away in the backlash.

Suyeong had known from the beginning.

What she would have to stake in order to change a predetermined history.

「The blank space in this world is limited, so one sentence can only be written after erasing another.」

Every time a line of fable was heard, Suyeong disappeared by that line's worth.

I shook Suyeong's shoulders.

Her fading eyes turned toward me. They seemed to be looking at me, or perhaps at distant Eternity.

They seemed to be gazing at a faraway, beautiful Snowfield where not a single sentence had been written yet.

She asked me, "Why did you want to become a writer?"

I opened and closed my lips stupidly.

I thought I had to answer something.

I wanted to find words that would hold Suyeong here.

But nothing came to mind. Though I'd written so many sentences, not a single word came to mind.

Suyeong's scattering hand brushed my cheek.

"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you the story you wanted."

That was the last thing she said.

I opened my mouth.

"Ah, ah..."

「Suyeong disappeared.」

It had to be Avatar. An Avatar had disappeared.

Suyeong couldn't be dead.

Suyeong...

[The fable Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint has finished its own story.]

Then, one by one, the fables echoing in my ears stopped their stories. The stories that had chattered without rest, that had seemed unable to stop, were cut off.

[The fable Predictive Plagiarism has finished its own story.]

Every story ended, and I was left alone again.

I saw Suyeong's Unbreakable Faith lying on the ground.

「Why did you want to become a writer?」

Only after every sentence had been erased, only after I'd lost every story I loved, did I finally find the answer.

"I want to know who I am."

I heard the wall inside me collapse.

Footnotes:

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